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"Print on Demand is the Salvation of the Industry"

There's nothing wrong with the book business that can't be cured by distributing books a different way," declares Richard Curtis, a literary agent writing about the success of Lightning Source and other print-on-demand delivery systems. He adds, "That's why I believe POD is the salvation of the industry." Read more here.

Children's Books May Contain Lead

A Seattle television station, KIRO 7, reports on lead in children's books, noting that some of the tests it conducted on older children's titles titles demonstrated these have illegal levels of lead. KIRO 7 also questioned the reliability of a study that showed most children's books are not hazardous, noting that the majority of the titles cited in the study as having no toxicity were published after 2004. Read more here.  

Now, a Customized News Magazine

Salon reports Time is embarking on a five-issue, 10-week test:

Time Inc. is experimenting with a customized magazine that combines reader-selected sections from eight publications as it tries to mimic in printed form the personalized news feeds that have become popular on the Internet.

[Dubbed "mine,"] the magazine is free, but the print edition is limited to the first 31,000 respondents, while an online version is available for another 200,000.

Sign-ups are available immediately at http://www.timeinc.com/mine, with the first issue to be shipped in the mail in early April, and then once every two weeks. Online subscribers will get digital editions that look just like the printed version, but in a special format that allows virtual page turns with clicks.

An article in USA Today adds,

The "mine" experiment represents the latest effort by traditional media organizations to appeal to readers increasingly accustomed to picking and choosing what they read on the Internet. Online advertising, through growing, hasn't generated enough revenue to offset declines in print; personalized print products could help fill some of the gap.

Cost of Paper in Perspective

You might be interested in "25 Random Things About Pulp and Paper," but what publishers care about most on that topic, usually, is how much paper will cost them. How much does print cost? Rising paper costs are an issue for publishers from Turkey to the United Kingdom and the Silicon Valley Insider observes that "Printing the NYT Costs Twice as Much as Sending Every Subscriber a Free Kindle."

But the printed word remains powerful, books are not newspapers, and traditional books are far more effective and useful for ministry to most audiences than other formats. So what? The cost of paper emphasizes the importance of acquisitions. Is what you are printing worth the paper it is printed on? Is your book valuable and needed?

Espresso Book Machine 2.0

Still wondering when bookstores will be able to offer instant print-on-demand books to customers who walk in off the streets requesting a specific title? Book Business magazine reports:

With the announcement last week of New York-based On Demand Books' newest version of its Espresso Book Machine, set to roll out early next year for initial testing, the current age of printing and distribution as we have come to know it may be on the verge of a major transformation.

On Demand Books CEO Dane Neller calls the newest version of the Espresso Book Machine a "quantum leap" over the previous two incarnations of the much-talked-about device. The first Espresso machines were installed in 2006 at the World Bank InfoShop in Washington D.C., and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt.

Read more here.

How to Achieve Sustainable Reading

Raz Godelnik, cofounder of Eco-Libris, an organization that seeks "to raise awareness of the environmental impacts of using paper for the production of books, .... decrease the number of trees been cut down for books and provide people and businesses with an opportunity to plant trees for their books," discusses the future of the industry and how green it can be here.

USA: Book Trends, Sustainable Print Studies in Progress

Graphic Arts Online tells of several studies launched by the Print Industries Market Information and Research Organization (PRIMIR):

• Trends in Books will "document technological and societal changes impacting the book publishing industry in North America," and project trends through 2012;
• Sourcing Behavior of North American Print Originators will "identify how print sourcing decisions are made today (2008), how they differ from five years ago, and project how they will be made five years hence;" and
• Sustainable Print in a Dynamic Global Market: What Going Green Means will "define sustainability and identify the regulatory, economic, social and environmental drivers impacting the developed nations print supply chain players."

Paper and Gas Costs Impact Publishers

U.K. publishers' costs have increased due to rising oil prices, says The Bookseller, noting that the impact comes primarily in shipping, packaging and utility costs. The article adds that "Chinese paper prices have also increased 25–30%." Thanh Nien News reports that rising paper costs are having an impact on publishers in Vietnam, even though the country "imports most of its paper from the Philippines and Malaysia."   

Printers' Associations

If your publishing house has a printing arm, or if you would like to learn more about the printing industry here are a few sites to try:

• The International Association of Printing House Craftsmen (IAPHC) includes links to information on business, presses, prepress hardware and software, paper companies, environmental and safety issues, and more. 

• International Reprographic Association (IRgA) includes associations in several countries in Europe as well as Japan and Korea.

• The International Graphic Arts Education Association (IGAEA) publishes the Visual Communication Journal, available free as a downloadable PDF.

Nigeria: Printers' Challenges, Optimism

In an interview for the Daily Sun, Mr. Olugbenga Ladipo, managing director of Academy Press, describes the challenges faced by printers in Nigeria:

In the printing industry, we have a situation whereby virtually all [we use] in getting printing done is not produced locally ... There is no printing machine that is manufactured in the country. You go on to the materials—papers, ink, chemicals, plates—none [are] produced locally. So, you have a situation where you are dependent on bringing in all those things from abroad. [Distance, availability, cost:] these are the challenges we face.

Ladipo continues:

[Government policies do not] favor the local producers ... Publishers [who] go abroad to print ... bring the books in on a lower tariff than [people who] import the materials to print at home. I don't think it is a level playing field for local printers.

Nevertheless, Ladipo expresses some optimism about the printing and publishing industries:

We see the Nigerian economy [is] growing, and you can see what has happened to the Gross Domestic Product in recent years, ... to the interest rate, and the per capita income, and to inflation. These are positive economic indices ... People appreciate the importance of education. We have to produce books. People have to read ... We are working to be part of the development. We intend to grow [to] cope with the upsurge in the needs of this important sector.